Police left red faced after cash goes missing from station after robbery trial

Police are baffled after almost $50,000 went missing from a north Dublin station – the third such disappearance in recent months.

The money had been seized as part of the investigation into a raid on a DIY store near the village of Malahide.

It’s the third haul of cash to go missing while it was being held as potential evidence in a criminal court trial according to the Irish Independent.

The paper says all three sums have gone missing from stations in the Dublin North police division.

Officers are still investigation if the money was stolen from the police station like the previous two lodgements, or if it has been mislaid.

One officer told the Irish Independent: “This is embarrassing for us to lose three separate amounts in one division. But we will not know whether all of the incidents are linked until we have firmly established the circumstances surrounding the latest disappearance.”

The cash was being stored in a safe at Malahide police station after it was recovered by officers following a robbery at the Coolock branch of Woodies DIY chain on the Malahide Road, which took place in June 2009.

The raiders made off with almost $100,000 but only one robber’s share of the money was retrieved by officers.

They stored the cash at Malahide station during the trial of two accused at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Officers told the paper that it is too early to determine definitively what had happened to the money and that they were hoping it might have been mislaid or placed by accident in another evidence bag.

Searches in Malahide and nearby stations have failed to locate the missing money according to the report.

The paper adds that officers did not realise that the cash was missing until Woodies sought the return of the cash after the court case ended.